A new report claims Britbox is struggling to hold on to subscribers once they have completed a trial.
Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates says that in research published last November, 19% of people were interested in the BBC-ITV venture, with a prediction that might then translate into 1.7 million subscribers at the end of the first year.
O&O says that in further research conducted four months after the service launched, only 1.5% of respondents have a subscription, representing around 380,000 subscribers. A further 560,000 have tried the service but won’t be subscribing, while 100,000 have already cancelled their paid subscriptions.
“If BritBox is to have any chance of success in the UK, ITV and the BBC need to act fast to capitalise on brand recognition, and implement platform carriage deals as soon as possible,” the report states.
Viewers are facing an ever-increasing array of choice on where to spend their money. In addition to the established Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ will launch on March 24 at the same £49.99 pricepoint as Britbox.
However, BritBox disagrees with the thesis. In a statement released to Broadband TV News the company said: “Following its successful launch in November, BritBox user data shows us that people really enjoy accessing the largest collection of British box sets which is demonstrated by the fact that the majority of trialists are continuing as paid subscribers at the end of their free trial period.
“The O&O research assertions made about BritBox bear no resemblance to our data – unsurprising as the findings are based on a relatively small sample data set.”
